APPENDIX. DIRECTIONS FOR ASCERTAINING THE DATES OF MONUMENTS. (From "Origines Genealogica," by STACEY GRIMALDI, F. S. A.) The following directions will afford some slight guide by which the date of an ancient monument may be ascertained when its legend can no longer be deciphered. Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.-The coffin-lid in the form of a prism, the better to shoot of the wet, because the bottom part of the stone coffin lay on the ground. In armour, the rustred, ringed, trellised, tegulated, mascled, and edge-ringed, obtained use. Twelfth Century.-Coffin-lids improved, or distinguished with crosses; at first plain, then fleury, in bas-relief. Tables, whereon effigies or sculpture. Priests had chalices in their hands on their breast; prelates had mitres, crosiers, great crosses, and pontifical habits; knights had arms, spurs, and swords. The armour as in the preceding century. No coats of arms, on shields, or otherwise, occur prior to this century. The earliest known in England are those of Geoffrey Magnaville, Earl of Essex, buried in the Temple Church, in the year A. D. 1164. Thirteenth Century.-Coffin-stones, with heads or bodies emerging from them, and placed in walls, with arches turned over them. The first brass statue, that of Henry III. Lombardic capitals became general on tombstones. The first table-monument is that of King John, in Worcester Cathedral, who died A. D. 1216; and the fashion lasted until the reign of James I. French epitaphs occur. The oldest instance of a skeleton-monument is A. D. 1241. Cross-legged figures are between A. D. 1224, and A. D. 1313. They imply crusaders, or that the parties had vowed to take the journey. The armour is complete mail, with only knee-pieces of plate. Fourteenth Century.-Lombardic capitals on tombstones not used after A. D. 1361. The text, or old English hand, succeeded, and continued till the reign of Elizabeth. The inscriptions were engraven on brass, and the words abbreviated. The armour is a mixture of mail and plate, but mostly mail. Coats of arms were not quartered by subjects until this century: John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, was the first. Supporters to arms first occur, being used by Richard II. Coronets first appear: the instance is in John of Eltham, who died A. D. 1334. Fifteenth Century.-Burials in chapels introduced. In armour, from A. D. 1400, all plate but the gorget: in A. D. 1416 all plate occurs. Henry V. was the first who bore three fleur-de-lis, instead of semee. Sixteenth Century.—Inlaid with brass, altar-monuments at the beginning of this century. Monu ments against the wall, chiefly since the reformation. Roman round-hand took place about the end of the reign of Henry VIII. “Orate pro anima” was discontinued on monuments at the reformation: Catholics (Roman) have only used it since. The first deviation from the Gothic forms of tombs is the monument of Lord Danley's mother, who died a. D. 1578. Skeletons in shrouds succeeded, and were imitated by corpses in shrouds, tied head and foot. Figures supported their heads on their right hands, an attitude taken from the Greek and Roman monuments. A kneeling attitude for children takes date not till after the Reformation; nor for parents, except to the cross; nor the infant in swaddling clothes, nor cradle. Seventeenth Century.-The latest date of animals at the feet is A. D. 1645. Cumbent figures occur till A. D. 1676. "THE word hearse," says du Cange, was anciently used for the Candlestick, or "Candelabrium," when Popish superstition used to burn a number of wax lights, night and day, at the tombs of their wealthiest nobles, or the shrines of their most renowned Saints, and whether moveable or immoveable, they were variously constructed, and often of the most costly description. Now it is only known as the name of a carriage in which the dead are conveyed to the place from whence they shall return no more. It was first used in the reign of William and Mary. In the time of Charles II. at the burial of a peer, the body was borne on men's shoulders. M |